We've discovered Irwin Terry's wonderful blog by accident, but were instantly captivated by his passion and dedication to illustrator Edward Gorey. As his works are featured in so many postcards, we invited Irwin to write a post about this famous American artist. :) So tell us Irwin, who was Edward Gorey?

Edward Gorey (1925 - 2000) was an American illustrator, writer and humorist who lived in New York City and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Mr. Gorey wrote and illustrated over 100 books, illustrated hundreds of books for other authors, provided the animation for Mystery! on PBS, and won a Tony Award for the 1979 Broadway production of Dracula. He was also a postcard aficionado, promoter, and a postcard collector. From an early age, Mr. Gorey created and sent interesting correspondence to friends and family, much of which was embellished by hand.

In 1976 he created his first set of postcard images titled The Broken Spoke which appeared in Sports Illustrated and was also published in book form. He went on to create and publish sets of postcards with themes ranging from Neglected Murderesses to Scene de Ballet. From 1984 to 1996, Mr. Gorey created a special annual post card for National Post Card Week. When designing postcards, Edward Gorey took the nom de plume of Dogear Wyrde, one of the many anagram names he created.

Due to his signature style of drawing and amusing images, many of his illustrations have been used as postcard images. Today, the best place to find/purchase Edward Gorey - illustrated postcards is The Edward Gorey House museum in Yarmouthport, MA. The gift shop at the museum sells over 50 different postcard images as well as books of postcards created by Mr. Gorey.

For more information on Mr. Gorey, his postcard images and his work, you can visit my Edward Gorey collecting blog.